Summary of goals and target areas in CDC plan

The Centers for Disease Control and Preven tion’s updated plan on emerging infections includes the following summarized goals, objectives, and target areas for action:

Surveillance and Response. Detect, investigate, and monitor emerging pathogens, diseases they cause, and factors influencing their emergence, and respond to problems as they are identified.

Objectives:

• Strengthen infectious disease surveillance and response.

• Improve methods for gathering and evaluating surveillance data.

• Assure the use of surveillance data to improve public health practice and medical treatment.

• Strengthen global capacity to monitor and respond to emerging infectious diseases.

Applied Research. Integrate laboratory science and epidemiology to optimize public health practice.

Objectives:

• Develop, evaluate, and disseminate tools for identifying and understanding emerging infectious diseases.

• Identify the behaviors, environments, and host factors that put people at increased risk for infectious diseases and their sequelae.

• Conduct research to develop and evaluate prevention and control strategies in nine target areas.

Infrastructure and Training. Strengthen public health infrastructures to support surveillance and research and to implement prevention and control programs.

Objectives:

• Enhance epidemiologic and laboratory capacity.

• Improve CDC’s ability to communicate electronically with state and local health departments, U.S. quarantine stations, health care professionals, and others.

• Enhance the nation’s capacity to respond to complex infectious disease threats in the United States and internationally, including outbreaks that may result from bioterrorism.

• Provide training opportunities in infectious disease epidemiology and diagnosis in the United States and throughout the world.

Prevention and Control. Ensure prompt implementation of prevention strategies and enhance communication of public health information about emerging diseases.

Objectives:

• Implement, support, and evaluate programs for the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases.

• Develop, evaluate, and promote strategies to help health care providers and other individuals change behaviors that facilitate disease transmission.

• Support and promote disease control and prevention internationally.

Target Areas

• Antimicrobial resistance. The emergence of drug resistance in bacteria, parasites, viruses, and fungi is reversing advances of the previous 50 years. As the 21st century approaches, many important drug choices for the treatment of common infections are becoming increasingly limited, expensive, and in some cases, nonexistent.

• Foodborne and waterborne diseases. Changes in the ways that food is processed and distributed are causing more multi-state outbreaks of foodborne infections. In addition, a new group of waterborne pathogens has emerged that is unaffected by routine disinfection methods.

• Vectorborne and zoonotic diseases. Many emerging or re-emerging diseases are acquired from animals or are transmitted by arthropods.

• Diseases transmitted through blood transfusions or blood products. The U.S. blood supply is one of the safest in the world, but blood remains a natural vehicle for transmitting infectious agents. Continued vigilance is needed to ensure the safety of the blood supply.

• Chronic diseases caused by infectious agents. Several chronic diseases once attributed to lifestyle or environmental factors (e.g., some forms of cancer, heart disease, and ulcers) might be caused or intensified by infectious agents. Thus, certain chronic diseases might someday be treated with antimicrobial drugs or prevented by vaccines.

• Vaccine development and use. Many childhood diseases have been virtually eliminated in the United States through universal vaccination. However, additional vaccines are needed to prevent diseases such as HIV/AIDS, dengue fever, hepatitis C, and malaria.

• Diseases of pregnant women and newborns. Certain asymptomatic infections in a pregnant woman can increase her infant’s risk of prematurity, low birth weight, long-term disability, or death. In addition, infections can be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breast-feeding.

• Diseases of persons with impaired host defenses. Those whose host defenses against infection have been impaired by illness, medical treatment, or as a result of age are more likely to become ill with various infectious diseases.

• Diseases of travelers, immigrants, and refugees. Persons who cross international boundaries are at increased risk for contracting infectious diseases and can also disseminate diseases to new places.¹

Reference

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventing emerging infectious diseases: A strategy for the 21st century. Overview of the updated CDC plan. MMWR 1998; 47(No. RR-15):1-14.